fairbanks

Efforts are underway in Alaska to stop cannabis businesses from opening in the Fairbanks North Star Borough.

A Salcha man is launching an initiative that he hopes will keep the legal marijuana trade out of the borough, while the president of a strip mall condominium association is claiming pot shops are banned in the River Mall under condo association rules, because cannabis is still illegal under federal law, reports Amanda Bohman at the Daily News-Miner.

The borough has already issued more than 40 land use permits for marijuana businesses, mostly cultivation. Another six applications for land use are pending, according to the borough Department of Community Planning.

Eleven of the 40 cannabis related permits are for marijuana retail storefronts.

The initiative which would prohibit cannabis commerce in the borough is pending review by Borough Clerk Nanci Ashford-Bingham, who said she got the application on last week.

Jim Ostlind of Salcha said he plans to get enough signatures to get a question on the local ballot asking voters to stop "marijuana commercialization."

Home cannabis growers in Alaska need a way to enter the legal marijuana market, a group of advocates said Tuesday at the first public hearing dealing with legal marijuana businesses in the Fairbanks North Star Borough.

"Most of the entrepreneurs are wanting to start a small boutique-sized facility in their home," said Shuan Tacke of Fairbanks, treasurer of the Alaska Marijuana Industry Association, reports Amanda Bohman at the News Miner. "No one would even know that it is next door to them as they don't even know now most of the time."

Tacke was among seven people to testify before the Planning Commission on an ordinance, 2015-41, which defines which zones allow cannabis dispensaries and companies.

Under the measure, no marijuana commerce would be allowed in residential zones. The Borough Assembly will have the final vote on the measure.

The details of the measure, according to deputy planning director Kellen Spillman, are:

• Heavy industrial zones are the most permissive for marijuana commerce. Cultivation, testing, manufacturing and retail would be allowed in heavy industrial zones.

• Cannabis cultivation would be allowed in agricultural and general use districts, but large facilities would be conditional and involve public hearings.

• Retail cannabis stores would be allowed in commercial and industrial districts.

A controversial amendment pushed by a state senator to ban all marijuana concentrates in 2017 will not survive, according to the head of an Alaska House committee that has spent much of the session reviewing cannabis rules under legalization.

"I would not go in that direction," LeDoux said. "To me, it is very important to adhere to the will of the people, and the people didn't say 'Let's have concentrates for two years and then two years later we'll stop being able to use them.' That was not the initiative."

The House Judiciary Committee held a few joint sessions with the Senate Judiciary Committee as the two worked through Senate Bill 30 and House Bill 79, which will regulate legal marijuana in the state.

The bill produced by the Senate Judiciary Committee was extensively rewritten by the Senate Finance Committee, and saw more than 20 amendments last week, including Sen. Kelly's controversial concentrates ban.